Families Matter
by Ghostwriter85
Summary: In House Divided Adam leaves and then comes back. This tells what happens in the short time he's gone.Thanks for the suggestions on the title. I made a small edit and got a title :D


***partial line from actual episode and done from memory as I could not find the section on youtube with Adam actually leaving; my luck thought someone else can find it lol.**

**Note: Inga My Love and the episode with Clay coming out contradict each other so I am going with what is in Inga My Love**

Fan Fiction

**Families Matter**

ONE SHOT

I do now own the copyrights to Bonanza

" *Little Joe needs you more than me!" The words haunted Adam as he rode away from the ranch. His heart ached and he wanted to be with his family, but he could not stay with the way things were.

The wind kept its howl low as the man in dark pants and a brown jacket rode on and the moon gave what light it could though it wanted to push the man back to where he'd came from. Kicking himself for not paying attention to time Adam realized travel was impossible and he'd not stopped soon enough to build a fire.

"Want to join me?" A man's voice in the dark startled Adam and he unconsciously put his hand to his hip.

"Relax, I'm no threat, my campfire is over there." The man with a withered hand pointed to a fire Adam had missed in his train of deep thought. "Might be slightly warmer if you do."

"Thanks." Adam led Sport to where the other man's horse stood hobbled and dismounted his own.

"Where are you going?" The man handed him a plate of food before getting comfortable himself.

"Don't know. Probably San Francisco for start; thinking to travel the world." Adam's mouth spoke the words eagerly; his eyes did not.

"Don't you have any family?" The man didn't act surprised when Adam said yes, but they were better off without him.

"Sometimes I think my brother's are better off without me, or even would be better off if I'd never been born." Adam sighed and then was shocked when the man's face started to glow.

"You think so?" The man leaned forward, "Let me show you something."  
Adam's felt himself jerk when everything around them faded and he saw Little Joe sitting in jail with a lawman asking him if wanted to talk to any preacher before his hanging.

"Little Joe wouldn't do anything to warrant being hung." Adam was furious and confused as to what was going on.

"Not with you around, or if you'd left on better terms, but with you up and leaving like you did your father couldn't get him to pull in his anger and, well, he flipped out, let his rage get out of control and killed a man who was knocking the union army."

"But he wasn't even for the north." Adam was stunned.

"No, but you were." The man didn't yell it, or even put condemnation his voice. No, he spoke it as a simple fact. Little Joe whirled out of sight and it's in place he saw a gray headstone with the name of Benjamin Cartwright on it. Adam's face grimaced in pain.

"What happened?" Adam steeled himself not eager to know, but still needing to have the information.

"With you gone, Little Joe Hung and well…" Look for yourself." Adam turned to where the old man was staring off at and was shocked when he saw Hoss staggering down the back alleys stone drunk.

"Hoss doesn't drink excessively." Adam was furious at what the man was showing him.

"No, but with you leaving in such a manner, and Little Joe being hung he turned to the bottle to hide his pain. It was too much for your father to bear" Once again the man spoke no harsh condemnation just stated simple facts.

"Okay, so me leaving wasn't good for them, but if I hadn't been born surely they'd have been better off." In Adam's heart he really didn't believe it, but he wasn't quite ready to admit that yet. Once again the man looked off to the side and Adam's gaze followed him.

The Ponderosa was intact and running, Ben was running the place, but there was no sign of Hoss and Little Joe, no grave for Marie. Just as Adam went to say something a woman walked out wearing very expensive clothing and who shooed away a child when he tried to get close.

"Where's Hoss, Little Joe, where's Marie's grave and who in the heck is that stuck up…lady; and I use the term loosely, Pa is with."

"Your Pa never married Inga."

"What do you mean he never married Inga?" Adam was stunned. "They loved each other dearly."

"Adam…" The man spoke gently. "Surely you can figure that one out."

Ben's oldest stopped and thought and then it was if a light went on. "Oh, since I wasn't with him sick he never had a reason to stop in the town where Inga was." He then asked about Little Joe. "Surely, he still went down and met Marie."

"Clay only came to work for your father because of a man he'd talked about your father. That man met him while he was with Inga." The stranger raised his eyebrows.

"So, Clay never came to work for Pa and Pa never had a reason to go down to Louisanna." Adam sighed. A thought jumped into his head. "What about my mother? Why didn't she come out west?"

"She died giving birth to a stillborn." Neither one of the men talked as Adam sat in silence and fell asleep thinking about what the man had somehow shown him. It was in the morning when Adam woke up he saw a lone , worn-out, Bible sat where the old man had been sitting. Picking it up he was stunned to read the name of Inga's father in the Bible.

"Families matter and I think I need to go home to mine." With that Adam mounted Sport and headed home.

Note: thanks to the suggestions. I tweeked the last line and got the title


End file.
